National Roundup

MYTON, Utah (AP) — The chief of a recently formed police department in the tiny eastern Utah town of Myton has been fired amid allegations he stalked three women.

Thomas Butterfield was fired Friday, two weeks after he was charged with five misdemeanors, including stalking, criminal trespass and unlawful detention.

Court documents don’t describe the alleged crimes, but say three women were victims. Butterfield has previously denied the allegations.

Mayor Kathleen Cooper declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding his termination.

The police department was organized July 1 to serve the town’s 500 to 600 residents, and Butterfield was its only full-time employee.

A part-time employee has been appointed interim chief while a search for a replacement is conducted.

Cooper told the Deseret News that there are no plans to disband the department.

Oregon

Woman accused of throwing son off historic bridge

NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) — A woman who said she threw her 6-year-old son off a historic bridge on the Oregon coast was arrested on murder and manslaughter charges after the boy’s body was found in the bay, police said.

Police and firefighters in the coastal city of Newport, Lincoln County deputies and the Coast Guard searched the bay with boats and a helicopter after Jillian Meredith McCabe, 34, of Seal Rock called 911 at 6:25 p.m. Monday to report throwing her son off the Yaquina Bay Bridge.

The boy’s body was found at 10:23 p.m. in the bay after it was spotted near the Embarcadero Resort, police said.

Detectives found McCabe on the bridge and arrested her on suspicion of aggravated murder, murder and manslaughter, police said.

She was booked into the Lincoln County Jail, with bail set at $750,000. She has not yet had a court appearance or lawyer assigned for her defense.

Police are asking anyone who saw the woman and child on the bridge to call detectives, who continue to investigate.

The Yaquina Bay arched bridge, one of the most famous on the Oregon coast, opened in 1936. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 2009, a woman tossed her two young children off a bridge in Portland, killing her 4-year-old son. A daughter, then 7 years old, survived. Amanda Stott-Smith was sentenced in 2010 to at least 35 years in prison.

California

Meth found amid California child’s Halloween candy

HERCULES, Calif. (AP) — Police in Northern California are investigating who gave a plastic bag of methamphetamine to a young girl on Halloween.

Hercules police Sgt. Ezra Tafesse tells the Contra Costa Times the 8-year-old girl’s parents found the powder packaged in a small zip-style bag among the child’s Halloween candy and alerted police Monday.

Tafesse says the girl had been trick-or-treating in the Promenade area of Hercules, a San Francisco Bay Area city, when she was given the bag containing one-tenth of a gram of crystal methamphetamine.

He says it’s not clear if the girl was given the drugs intentionally or accidentally, and police don’t have a suspect.

Tafesse says drugs are slipped into Halloween candy from time to time, but it’s usually marijuana.

California

15 charged in takeover th­at closed casino

COARSEGOLD, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed charges against 15 people in the armed takeover of a Central California casino at the center of a power struggle between factions of a Native American tribe.

The group's leader, Tex McDonald, 64, surrendered Monday to the Madera County Sheriff's Office along with three other suspects, Sheriff John Anderson said in a news release. Another man was arrested Sunday.

Deputies remain on the lookout for 10 others wanted on charges that include kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault with a firearm. Bail for McDonald was set at $1 million.

The charges stem from a dispute between rival factions of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi Indians vying for control of the Chukchansi Gold Resort & Casino northeast of Fresno.

Authorities closed the casino's doors last month after one group attempted a takeover. More than a dozen people stormed the casino with weapons, sending hundreds of gamblers running with chips still on the tables. Nobody was seriously hurt.

The group has said it sought to obtain financial records to complete overdue audits.

A federal judge has ruled in favor of the state's attorney general to keep the casino closed until the dispute is settled. The National Indian Gaming Commission also ordered the casino closed.

Madera County District Attorney Michael Keitz told the Fresno Bee the charges make each defendant eligible for a state prison sentence. He announced the charges Friday, saying the suspects can surrender or be arrested.

Attorney David Leibowitz, who represents members of the faction facing charges, said the men did nothing illegal and put no casino customers in danger. He said the group intends to work with prosecutors to resolve the case quickly and clear the men's names.

The casino employed 1,100 people — most of them now laid off — and profits funded monthly checks to tribal members.

Missouri

Courthouse killer dies in prison at age 75

MINERAL POINT, Mo. (AP) — A 75-year-old man who was sentenced to death for killing his wife in a 1992 shooting rampage at the St. Louis County Courthouse has died in prison, the Missouri Department of Corrections said Monday.

Kenneth Baumruk died late Friday at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point of apparent natural causes, the agency said. He was the oldest inmate on Missouri's death row.

Baumruk pulled two handguns from a briefcase and opened fire in the Clayton courthouse on May 5, 1992, killing his wife, Mary, as their divorce hearing was about to begin. He also wounded both of their lawyers, a bailiff and a security guard, and fired at a judge and police officers but missed.

Police returned fire and struck Baumruk nine times, including twice in the head.

Baumruk initially was ruled incompetent for trial partly because of head injuries suffered when he was shot by police. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to die in 2001, but the case was thrown out by the Missouri Supreme Court.

A 2007 retrial held ended with Baumruk convicted of first-degree murder and again sentenced to die.